Affiliation:
1. From the Immunology Division of the Department of Medicine, and the Department of Pathology, Children's Hospital Medical Center and the Departments of Pediatrics and Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Abstract
Relatively pure populations of human T and B lymphocytes were obtained from blood and tonsils using density gradient centrifugation in bovine serum albumin. Antigen alone was incapable of triggering the B lymphocyte into blast transformation or to secrete antibody. However, supernatants from tetanus toxoid-stimulated T cells obtained from immune donors contained a factor mitogenic for B lymphocytes. 50–60% of B cells responded to this lymphocyte mitogenic factor (LMF) by proliferation, loss of C3 reactivity, and change to a secretory state. LMF-stimulated B cells exhibited a three- to fivefold increase in protein secretion and a six- to eightfold increase in gamma G globulin secretion. De novo secreted IgG had specificity directed to the tetanus toxoid present in the LMF containing T-cell supernatants. This was confirmed by an increase in the number of indirect plaque-forming cells to tetanus toxoid-coated sheep red blood cells after stimulation of B cells with LMF. It is proposed that in the course of the response to a previously encountered protein antigen, sensitized human T cells emit a signal in the form of a soluble product that, together with antigen, triggers B cells into division and antibody secretion. The experimental model utilized can be adapted to study human T-B cell cooperation under various conditions in normal individuals and in individuals with immunodeficiency diseases.
Publisher
Rockefeller University Press
Subject
Immunology,Immunology and Allergy
Cited by
102 articles.
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